Chapter 33: Africa, the Middle East, and Asia in the Era of Independence

By: Eric Braun, Thomas Galvin, Spencer Borchelt, Isaiah Lankford, Matt McMahon, and Jonathan Hambrick

General Social Developments • Peasants in Africa, India, and Asia had little to no say in politics other

than in local government.• Attempts at socialist ideology left a few people rich while the majority

were poor.• Population boom caused by increasing infant survival rates,

increasing life spans, and the social belief that children are a sign of virility (manliness)

• This population boom led to social, political, and economic tensions across the board.

• The leaders of the new nations of Africa, the Middle East, and Asia soon felt the need to deliver on the promises of social reform and economic well-being that had rallied support to the nationalist cause.

• Strategies of these reforms ranged from populism to dictatorship to rejection of the west.

• Women were considered second class citizens in most of the countries of this region.

African Social Developments

• South Africa was subjected to the Apartheid movement, a strict segregation movement meant to keep the white minority in power in South Africa.

• South Africa was divided into different sections according to the main tribal groups of the black African population as part of Apartheid. These areas were called Homelands.

• F.W. de Klerk took power in the 1989, and established social reforms aimed at ending Aparthied

• The release of key figures like Nelson Mandela in 1990 signaled that the end of Apartheid was near.

• Other African nations suffered from boundaries drawn by their European colonizers with little to no consideration to ethnic groups, tensions between these groups arose when the common enemy in the Europeans left, and when their economies failed.

Middle Eastern Social Developments

•The religious fervor caused by Ayatollah

Ruhollah Khomieni’s successful attempt to overthrow the western backed governments decreased the influence of women in Iran

•British and Russian influence resulted in Iran’s lack of a bureaucratic system nor an educated middle class.

Asian Social Developments • Asia experienced a population explosion

caused in part by the green revolution, and the eradication of tropical diseases.

• Many Asians flocked to the cities to find jobs, but there were not enough jobs to go around, and the cities’ infrastructure could not support all of them.

• The gap between the rich and poor increased with the Green revolution because the poor could not afford the fertilizers needed to keep up with large farms.

African Political Developments • Spurred by population growth, new nationalist movements

gained ground and won independence for many people in Africa.▫ People who supported these movements were promised

jobs, civil rights, and equality after independence was won.▫ Often in times after independence these promises were not

carried out due to an unequal distribution and lack of wealth.

▫ This lack of wealth and the common enemy in the Europeans brought out local tensions and often led to conflicts.

▫ One of the least successful responses on the part of leaders who found their dreams for national renewal has been a retreat into authoritarian rule.

African Political Developments • Kwame Nkrumah became the leader of Ghana’s

independence movement in 1957.▫ He assumed dictatorial powers and ruled through

functionaries and his own Convention People’s party.▫ He tried to justify his policies and leadership style with

preferences to a uniquely African brand of socialism and the need to revive African traditions and African civilization.

▫ His leftish political policies at the beginning of his rule attracted soviet support but scared away needed western investors. This doomed his rule and he turned to authoritarian government.

• In South Africa the election of F. W. de Klerk in 1989 led to the end of Apartheid when power was turned over to the Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress in 1994

Middle Eastern Political Developments

• Iran underwent a major revolutionary period, started by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979.▫ Khomeini called for a return to the golden age of Islam, and his

revolution was very similar to the Mahdist movement in 1880’s Sudan.▫ Sunnis and Shi’as alike untied against the western backed Shah, with

the vision to turn Iran into a haven for Muslims▫ The Shah left the country when a strong nationalist leader named

Mohammed Mosaddeq rose to power, but the Shah was returned by a C.I.A power move.

▫ After his return, the Shah alienated pretty much all of Iran including the Army, and he fled again, this time to be replaced by Khomeini

▫ Once in power Khomeini kept his promise to the people and set about creating a state governed by Sharia law. Iraq was scared of this new government, and invaded, Iran was unprepared and Iraq ended up taking a good chunk of Iranian Territory.

Middle Eastern Political Developments

• Gamal Adbul Nasser took power in Egypt after a military coup in 1952▫ He overthrew the Khedival regime ▫ By this time, British presence was reduced to the Suez Canal region of the

country ▫ Nasser was backed by the Free Officers Movement and the Muslim

brotherhood ▫ The movement was founded by Egyptian officers in the army, and they struck

an alliance with the Muslim Brotherhood organization▫ The Brotherhood was founded by Hasan al-Banna, a teacher who was

committed to overthrow the corrupt governments that plagued Egypt. ▫ Nasser attempted many reforms aimed at industrializing and modernizing

Egypt, but all of them were foiled by corruption, and a landlord class who did not want to give up their power

▫ As a result of this decline, foreign investment waned . Nasser accelerated his decline by engaging in expensive foreign ventures, such as the 6 Day War with Israel.

▫ Anwar Sadat, Nasser’s sucessor, took a more conservative approach, favoring the middle class and trying to end confrontation with Israel. This approach was continued by Sadat’s successor Hosni Mubarak until the 2011 revolution

Asian Political Developments • Jawaharlal Nehru, a member of the Indian National Congress Party, became India’s first prime minister. • The Government invested in the Green Revolution,

believing it to be the quickest way to industrialization • The Indian government enacted reforms to promote

literacy and village development schemes, as well as family planning, village electrification, and other improvement projects.

• Despite their good intentions, the Indian government efforts were sometimes undermined by greedy officials

General Interaction Developments•Spiraling population increases often

overwhelmed whatever economic advances peoples of the new nations managed to make.

•A mass migration to the cities occurred.•Most cities lacked the rapidly expanding

industrial sectors, there were few jobs and heavy competition for the existing jobs.

•The migrants turned to street vending, scavenging, huckstering, begging, or petty crime for survival.

African Interaction Developments

•New crops created in the Green Revolution helped sustain high levels of population in areas such as the Niger delta in west Africa.

• In Africa population increased at very high rates.

•Very high birth rates and diminished mortality rates have resulted in very sharp population increases in recent decades.

Middle Eastern Interaction Developments

The Green Revolution took hold in the Middle East, and supported larger populationsNew oil sources became a major source of income for many middle eastern governments

Asian Interaction Developments•Increases in population were caused by

efforts to eradicate tropical diseases, improved sewage systems, and

•South Asian moderate growth rates produced huge total populations.

•Rural areas were still over populated even after many people went to the cities to find work, and this led to excessive deforestation and over grazing.

African Cultural Developments

•Black organizations that posed a threat to Apartheid such as the African National Congress were declared illegal, and African leaders such as Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela were shipped off to maximum-security prisons.

•Other leaders, such as Steve Biko, one of the young organizers of the Black Consciousness movement, were murdered while in police custody.

Middle Eastern Cultural Developments •The Khomeini revolution of 1979 was a

throwback to the religious fervor of such anticolonial resistance movements as that led by the Mahdi of the Sudan in the 1880s.

•Core motivations for the movements were provided by the emphasis on religious purification and the rejoining of religion in politics in which leaders such as the Mahdi and the Khomeini have seen as central to Islamic tradition.

Asian Cultural Developments

• The Caste system went away with Indian independence, but social inequalities based on Caste remained in some areas.

• Some Asian countries allowed women to play a greater role in politics, like Indiria Ghandi in India, or Corazon Aquino in the Phillipines, but most of the time, women had little to no political power.

• The obstacles to female self-fufiliment were early marriage ages, religious revivalism, and old traditions that discriminated against women

General Economic Developments •The colonial system of colonies exporting

one major export severely hurt the colonies during the neo-colonialist era.

•Colonies were subject to fluctuating prices of exported goods which were worth much less than industrialized goods.

•Countries trying to industrialize were plagued by greedy rulers who horded the income.

African Economic Developments •Africa experienced the most negative

effects of the Neo-Colonialist economy.•Most countries relied solely on one export,

and were at the mercy of supply and demand and corrupt rulers.

•For example Ghana’s most exported product was Cocoa.

•Eventually the price of Cocoa fell dramatically, and it had an extremely negative impact on the economy of Ghana.

Middle Eastern Economic Developments•The green revolution was the introduction

of improved seed strands, fertilizers, and irrigation. as of means of producing higher crop yields.

•This revolution supported larger populations throughout the Middle East.

•Many countries used oil money to fund industrialization

•Iran and other countries were mainly supported by oil wealth.

Asian Economic Developments

•Industrial and agrarian growth has generated the revenue necessary for the Indian government to promote different reforms.

•Population growth in India has offset many major economic gains.

•Most of Asia took part of the Green Revolution in an attempt to raise the funds necessary to industrialize